Trips that will get you closer to new cultures

Trips that will get you closer to new cultures

Delve deep into the history of two great civilisations when you travel from Istanbul to Athens with Tucan Travel. This 12-day adventure starts in continent-straddling, bazaar-bustling Istanbul before heading to historic Troy and the Gallipoli battlefields.

Cross into Greece to explore the slope-side port of Kavala and Thessaloniki’s Ottoman heritage, gaze up at the UNESCO-listed Meteora monastery, muse over the ruins of Delphi and end in ancient Athens.

2. Bite into the Balkans

Get a taste of eastern Europe on a Real Food Adventure – Macedonia & Montenegro trip with Intrepid Travel – a 10-day itinerary that lets you stuff yourself silly. Eat moussaka in Skopje’s Old Bazaar, learn to make pastry with local women in Janche, and sip herb-infused rakija with locals in Kuratica.

Visit Ohrid Lake and the painted mosque of Tetovo, spend a day with a beekeeper in Dihovo then cross into Montenegro to sample Njegusi’s smoked hams and Kotor’s olives. Yum.

Visit leafy Almaty and drive through the rocky Charyn Canyon in Kazakhstan; learn how to build a yurt in Kyrgyzstan; see Dushanbe’s grand mosque and hike the Fann Mountains in Tajikistan. Your adventure ends in the Silk Road city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital.

Over 11 days you’ll visit the great poets’ tombs of Shiraz, the ruins of ancient Persepolis, the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great (founder of the Achaemenid Empire) in Yazd, and the UNESCO-listed Jameh mosque and general splendour of Isfahan.

Kick off with a tour of Athen’s classic sites, as well as the modern Olympic Stadium, before self-driving to the venues of the ancient Olympics: visit Delphi’s amphitheatre and Olympia – the birthplace of the Games. Complete your stay with trips to another host town, Nemea, and Venetian-influenced Nafplion.